FIC announced that the new FOX Sports will soon also be launching in Italy with a portfolio of sports rights and FIC has plans to roll out the new TV channel in other TV markets around the world.
"Our goal is to bring all the passion of FOX Sports to the most passionate fans around the world, and in this ranking Italy comes high up on the list," says Hernan Lopez, the president and CEO of Fox International Channels in a statement.
As ESPN is scaling back its TV channels internationally such as ESPN Classic which will be gone soon from MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform in Africa when the channel is discontinued across Africa, Europe and the Middle East, FIC is seeking to fill the gap with aggressive expansion plans to increase its own new sports brand internationally through carriage deals.
FOX Sports in Italy has for instance snapped up sports rights from the ESPN channel version which will soon cease broadcasting there.
Even more intriguing? Sky Sports Italia already exists in Italy as a TV channel, and Sky Sports Italia is 100% owned by 21st Century Fox. Fox is therefore clearly wanting to expand FOX Sports globally and doesn't seem fazed by directly competing with another TV channel which is part of the same global business.
Britain's The Guardian also reported over the weekend that FIC is exploring plans to create its own brand-new soccer league featuring Europe's top soccer clubs with matches shown globally by 21st Century Fox, starting in 2015. Games will be played globally in Europe, Asia and North and South America and shown worldwide.
This intriguing development begs the question of when, or if, FOX Sports would be added to a satellite pay-TV operator in South Africa such as On Digital Media's (ODM) TopTV or even DSTv.
TopTV has struggled to add a real sports channel and where FIC Africa already runs several TV channels, or even MultiChoice's DStv which also has FIC Africa channels on it's channel line-up such as National Geographic Channel and FOX.
ALSO READ: FuelTV on TopTV won't be changing its name to FOX Sports 2 when FuelTV in the United States changes it names in August to FOX Sports 2, says TopTV.
